


Market Day

by Palefire73



Series: Prisoners. The Chronicles of Loki and Erika [11]
Category: Loki - Fandom, Marvel
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Loki Is Evolving, Loki has a new life, Love, Prisoners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 06:39:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11225406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: Loki and Erika travel over to the near-by town to see what is there and are pleasantly surprised. Erika enjoys the contact with other "people" and Loki decides to advertise for someone to help about the farm.





	Market Day

When designing the elaborate alternate reality in which Loki was to be imprisoned, Erik and The Vision had decided to use a template which was a replica of The Nine to build it with as this would mean that there would be a greater degree of authenticity and it would eradicate the necessity of building something from scratch – which would have been an enormous task. This is where the combined forces of the Tesseract and the Mind Gem had been crucial; once the containment field had been perfected, The Vision had unleashed their powers and had run them through a programme that had a complete map of the Nine – or at least those parts that had been mapped – and all of the things which existed there. The resulting transformation had been fantastic to watch and Erik had been astounded at how these infinity stones worked when put towards a goal for good. The only things they had decided not to take over into the alternate reality were the various races which existed there – the Humans, Elves, Dwarves and so on – or at least the real ones. Although it meant there would be extra work involved, The Vision had programmed in a synthetic population which was only in the town nearest the small holding where Loki and Erika now lived. They were there from day one, with implanted memories of their “lives”, the ability to grow and reproduce and to die and to be fully interactive with their environment. The Vision was also working back on Midgard in the real Nine to extend the presence of these beings with the intention to eventually have them wherever they were needed, just in case Loki ever got wanderlust.

 

But for now, they only really needed people to be in the town.

 

The Vision had based the formation of this prison on the methods used in terra-forming which was wide-spread around the Nine; whenever a race of beings wished to start to populate another world, they would assess its compatibility and send out equipment to change the physio-chemistry to suit their needs. Then months or even years later, they would send up a seeding craft which would fly around the newly adjusted planet and drop parcels of seeds and bacteria specifically designed for each ecological niche so that they could establish themselves and then it was only a matter of time before the readings taken at regular intervals would show them whether their efforts had succeeded or not. It was not always a success of course; sometimes it took a few attempts to get a planet to the stage where it could then be explored with a view to populating it, sometimes it completely failed. However there was one great advantage that the prison they had generated at Thor’s behest had on this occasion: all of the requirements for life were already in place. The environment, the plants and the animals which were there were already fully compatible with what Erika and Loki needed to survive. The horses, for example, were direct copies of real horses back in Asgard – from the pattern on their coats right down to their genes on a sub-cellular level.

 

The people, however, were not copies of real people. They were first generation synthetics based on a more realistic version of The Vision himself and were actually made of biochemical materials such as bone and flesh and skin. One could argue that the strange synthetic being created from the fusion of The Mind Gem and Jarvis had actually now become some kind of creator himself. Was he the “God” of these beings? Arguably, he was – he had brought them into existence after all. However, in another sense he was not. The thoughts and memories he had programmed them with were made up of terabytes of information and algorithms based upon thousands of studies made on the Asgardian condition and the socio-political history of the realm. He had certainly not made any provision for them to have any inkling that they had been “made” by the personification of a house computer back on Midgard.

 

It was not a perfect situation The Vision knew, but he was constantly making improvements to the prison and everything within it and he had high hopes for the success of the place. Based, of course, on continual monitoring and calculation.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Erika was quite excited for the day’s trip to the market. She had been here a while now and was getting used to the farm and all of the activities involved in its upkeep, but she craved contact with other people and, quite frankly, she wanted to see just how convincing they would be. If she was to stay here in this prison with Loki for as long as she lived, then they would have to be very good – so good, in fact, that she would possibly get to the point where she could accept them as real. For all she knew, The Vision might have a plan to start to populate the prison with other real people. It would be the ideal way to remove unwanteds from the real Nine, surely? They could have their minds altered to remove any trace of what it was they had done wrong and give them a new start here, perhaps? In any case, it was going to make a change today and the young Asgardian busied herself making sure she had her list, that the produce they were taking to barter was parcelled up carefully and that she had a little coin for anything else which might take her eye.

 

A long arm slipped around her and she found herself being turned around to face Loki, who was dressed in very flattering clothing today. They had decided to ride to town and he was dressed to do so in very nicely tailored riding clothes made of brown leather and crisp white cotton. Erika was pleased to see this change in her former King was taking him further and further away from his old self every day and the Loki that was being revealed could not be more perfect if he had been doing it on purpose, even though she knew it was not the case. Even in the short time she had been here his appearance had continued to mellow from the harshness he had adopted back in Asgard to a truly handsome and more rugged man. She accepted his morning kiss and felt as if she was falling in love with him all over again as she watched him while he cheerfully made a pot of tea and asked her to add a few things to the list. A puzzled grin from Loki snapped her out of her little reverie and she tried to act in a nonchalant manner as she wrote what he had mentioned on the now rather cramped piece of parchment, but there was a rather peculiar feeling in her belly and she could not help but allow her eyes to return to watch him about his task. The way he moved was so much more at ease than he had ever been back in Asgard, as if he had not a care in the realm any longer. He did little things, like dipping his finger in the kettle of water to check how hot it was getting and then turning to flick the droplet at her playfully whilst grinning widely. Loki at the Palace would not have done that. By the time he was bringing a cup of tea over for her, she was almost lost in a world of her own as she mused on just how her feelings for this man were evolving.

 

“Is everything alright?” His voice, like velvet on her ears, broke her train of thought and she jumped slightly, refocusing on his hand as he put the cup down in front of her.

“Oh! Yes… yes. I am trying to think if I have missed anything.”

“From your face, you were thinking very deeply! I am quite sure we will manage to get everything we need.”

“Yes, I think we will.” Replied Erika and she helped herself to a slice of toasted bread which was smothered with jam she had made from some Asgardian Gooseberries. They finished their breakfast quickly and Loki went out to ready two horses for the journey. It was not long before they were on their way and it was a lovely journey in the early Winter sunshine that saw them over to the next town, which was about a morning’s ride away.

 

As they approached, they could see it was a reasonably sized town, with a few farms around the outskirts. As they got nearer, the houses started to appear, mostly of a detached variety with large gardens put over to a mixture of potager gardening and space to keep a few animals. These led on to small terraces which bordered on the town square. The Square itself was very big and was mostly laid to cobbles with a green in the middle with a well, a few old Asgardian Oaks and benches and tables along with a play area for the children. Bordering this central Square was a variety of buildings, the largest of which was the Town Hall, built of the local ruddy Asgardian Sandstone. It was a very grand building and Erika guessed that many of the civic and legal activities of the town and the surrounding areas were conducted there. On the other three sides of the square were various other establishments, including a large tavern called The Rustler, an impressive-looking bakery, a blacksmith’s, a haberdashery, a general store and a few other businesses. As they rode along the street, a few glances came their way from the people going about their daily errands, and a few smiled and waved at them by way of a greeting.

 

Loki steered his horse over to a place set to one side which was clearly for tethering one’s steed and they both dismounted and secured their horses.

“Where to first?” He asked, and Erika indicated the market which was set up on one side of the square.

“How about we make enquiries about selling our produce or bartering? If it is a simple matter and the people here are amenable to it, then we could off-load them and be free to shop.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Said Loki and he pointed to the tavern, “Perhaps they brew their own beverages there. Shall we offer them our cider apples?”

 

So the first hour or two was spent introducing themselves to a few of the proprietors of the town and it was not long before they had made a few acquaintances and even a few potential friends. They had stressed that they did not want to intrude on anyone else’s “patch” when it came to bringing things to sell or exchange, but they quickly found that this town often had to resort to importing some things such as fruits and vegetables because there were not enough producers. This was a very lucky coincidence, and Loki and Erika soon found their fruit snapped up by the tavern and the bakery. As they partook of a tankard of mead in the midday sunshine, they discussed what this could mean for them and their future here. It would definitely mean they would have a source of income which would allow them to buy the things they could not grow or make themselves and Erika became quite animated as she came up with idea after idea as to how they could find many things to do which would be mutually beneficial to the townspeople and themselves.

 

“While we are here, I need to put the word out that we need a farm hand for at least the rest of the Winter.” Said Loki. He looked around and nodded, “There are bound to be some strong lads of the right age who could do with employment. The Green Grocer we are bringing some fruit to next week should be able to point us in the right direction.” The two of them finished their drinks and then went about the rest of the market to see if they could find everything on their list and it was not long before the saddle bags on their two horses were groaning with what they had bought. Loki left Erika to look after their mounts while he went to talk to the Green Grocer about someone to employ and she spent the time looking around the square. Everyone they had spoken to had been so convincing, she had almost forgotten that they were not strictly real. At first she had scrutinised them, but then she had realised that her manner was probably quite rude and even Loki had given her a few side-long glances as if to ask her what she thought she was doing. The Vision had done an exceptionally good job it seemed and Erika began to relax a bit; she needed to start to let go of her old life and ways, accept where she was for what it was and start to allow herself to be won over by it. She smiled at Loki as he came back and they untied the horses as he explained that his request would go up in the Town Hall on a notice board they had there. They made the journey back home and spent the late afternoon putting their newly acquired things away before making a pleasant supper and settling down on the sofa to while away the evening reading and playing cards. It had been a good day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Back on Midgard, The Vision sat back from the console and applied the encryption to the system which would prevent anyone snooping and messing around. He was impressed with how quickly the two prisoners had started to interact with their surroundings and now that they had contacted the people in the town, things would be so much easier to oversee. The young man destined to make his way up to Loki’s farm to apply for the job as farm hand would have more to him than might meet the eye and he would be a very valuable asset indeed. He would provide a direct conduit to Erika and The Vision would be able to give him certain commands remotely from Midgard – another fail safe that Odin had insisted upon. Despite the fact that Erika had gone in there believing she would never hear from the outside ever again, she had been mistaken. Her dedication to Loki had needed to be proven to be absolute and so The Vision had not told her of any of the plans in place for communication until he was sure she would go in there believing there would be no means to hear from the outside world again. However, he was not so callous or unfeeling that he would have ever consented to condemn someone to a situation like that for real and he was quite looking forward to initiating some dialogue with her in the near future.

 

Using their new companion, The Vision could talk to her any time he chose.

**Author's Note:**

> So I have had a productive day in the sun and here is a new part to this series as I might not get a chance to update next weekend. Now they have made contact with the townsfolk, we will have to see what effect having someone else around has on our lovely couple.


End file.
